Red
by bakamon
Summary: AsuKure fic. Asuma and Kurenai go on A Date. A little fluff, but not too much.


Red was a color of life. The color of anger.

Red was the color of the lifeforce flowing through his veins, the color of many things.

Red was the color of her lips, her eyes, and everything about her.

He was standing outside of her apartment, bent over with the posture of an old man who carried heavy bricks for all of his life. A nice suit, buttoned up. The pack of cigarettes in his breastpocket was pulled out, and only one lone cigarette was pulled forth into his hands and placed into his mouth. Enamel held tight onto the cancer stick, as the hands moved into the pockets of the long black slacks to pull out the needed flamebox for igniting the end of it while taking a long drag of it. Blowing the smoke out of the nostrils, he was apathetic to the damages it would deal later on. Eyes trailing up towards the door, awaiting any sound or movement from inside while hands reapproached his lower pockets.

Inside, was a stark contrast to the calmness outdoors. The scarlet eyes reading every detail of herself over in a reflection in her bedroom. Not out of vanity, but out of insecurity. The coal hair was pinned up by a set of double kunai, given to by her now deceased mother. The sharp-ends poking into the sky, nowhere near her neck out of safety precaution; the circular gripping-end was near the neck instead. Instead of the normal bandaged up dress with fishnet she usually wore, a fervid dress of a similar tone to the eye color replaced it well. A pair of heeled open-toed sandals were worn, even if it was more of a vacation she was still a ninja.

Maybe that was why it took her so long to ever take him up on that date he offered to her when they were Chuunin and coming back from that mission. Surprise was on her side whenever she saw him unattached, almost as if he strictly set himself aside for herself. It raised questions for her, like why just her? There were certainly better and prettier women in Konoha than she was. But in essence, it was almost the same reason she had put herself aside for only him.

Once receiving enough confidence, she brought herself to the living room where she had found him standing in the doorway already; glaring at her, not angrily of course she had seldom seen him angry. He seemed too laidback and lazy to ever hold anger, though once in awhile, he brought it out on a mission.

He said nothing, but moved like a spectre upon her and offered his arm to her like a gentleman. She was a lady and quite well deserved to be treated like one. Whatever she had been thinking, worrying about, he was oblivious to. Apathetic as well. For as much as he was concerned, he was in a red world of his own with her. And that was the way he liked it.

"Asuma?" her hand wrapped around his own, hesitantly. She had been caught off-guard by his actions, scared by the way he was moving tonight. It seemed to her that maybe he had lost interest after all these years and had just agreed to this for the sake of keeping his word. "You didn't have to agree to this if you didn't want to, you know."

His eyelids came over the eyes twice, before looking down to the more petite (compared to his larger frame; he was one of the tallest men in Konoha, afterall) woman, the one he had spent his life chasing. It wasn't a fancy relationship like the kind one would see in chick-flicks, it was serene and calm. He was the one with the shock when she timidly brought the subject up one day during one of their walks in town. Most of the townsfolk had even murmured about them, he could hear it under their breaths, 'Sarutobi's relative, yes, the Jounin sensei is he dating that pretty Yuuhi girl?' or 'Maybe he'll ask her to marry him today .. I always thought that they'd both have fine children with each other.' somethings like that.

"I did. I promised you it." she cringed under the words, mentally. Maybe it was true that he had been cold about the idea of romance between themselves after all these years. It was his choice though, and she wouldn't force him into it if he wasn't willing. Despite never falling for romance, preferring her marriage to work than to a man, she had found herself baffled as to why she fell for him so hard, and when it all began.

"I see .." he could sense something about her that wasn't right. She was normally a confident and willing-minded woman, two reasons why he had fallen for her seemingly aeons ago. He knew exactly why he had fallen for her.

For his larger, bulkier (out of muscle mass) size, he was quick. He swooped down in front of her, connecting his eyes with her own. Arms wrapped around her and brought her closer to him, all the while keeping a steady glare on her. When she was close enough for the distance between the two to close, he had to bend down a little to press his lips against her own red ones.

Tonight, she noted to herself, was the end of a dream and the start of reality.

Red was the color of not only the dress she wore that night; but the start of the new romance in their own little world.

Red was their color.

* * *

**A/N:** Naruto isn't mine. If it was, it'd probably be some freaky-deaky porno theater. This was also intended for a 30 Kisses entry at the LJ community. 


End file.
